Patty Sprenger is a parent taking the plunge and joining the wave! Follow her journey over the next year and see where it leads. She has two kids ages 11 and 13 and lives north of Chicago. If you live in the area and would like to connect with Patty, contact us here at Light Way Schools.

The day after Labor Day is a good start school day according to my husband. The dilemma I have is not the start date. It is the approach. I just realized that we are two different pages of the homeschool book. Yes, we did buy a bunch of books for the kids this year. Yes, I did show them these books, explain the books, make them binders. Yes, even I am having trouble of completely letting go of all I know about school--textbooks, review questions, math, spelling and grammar. I, however, feel there are other ways, more effective everyday life ways to teach these subject. I love the desire driven learning approach. I want to “unschool” them, and see just how far they can go down that path. My husband wants to school at home. It is all he knows, and he is fearful they will not learn what they need to know for their future endeavors. He wants the best for them. I want the best for them. So, I asked the kids. I brought them a sheet of paper with all the different methods of homeschooling written in brief paragraph form. Everything from Waldorf and Montessori to public school online to unit studies, Charlotte Mason and unschooling. It was a crazy complete list. My children knew instantly which sounded the best to them: Unschooling was the top favorite, and Waldorf was the distant second. As I was pondering their choices and how easily they knew what they wanted, Arianna was looking over the list again.

Later that afternoon, we were taking the dog for a walk and talking. Then Arianna stops dead in her tracks and says, “Mom, I like some of those books we got, and I love the games, but if we are just going to do school at home, what is the point of being homeschooled?” She is so deep and logical with her thoughts. She thought about that list for a long time, and was really confused about why we would make such an abrupt change to continue doing the same thing in a different place. This is the whole point. I want different for my kids. We will not officially start school today. I am waiting for the Lightway Unschooling seminar to come rolling in. My husband needs the Lightway Unschooling seminar information before we can come to an united agreement. For now, I will live with that little girls question as my guide, “What is the point of being homesc